Apple removes Bose speakers and headphones from its online store
As first reported last week, Apple has removed Bose products from its online site and apparently many retail stores. That news was first spotted by 9to5Mac.
Bose and Apple-owned Beats Electronics have been in a number of well-publicized skirmishes. Currently, Beats owns around 61 percent of the premium headphone market while Bose is second with a 22 percent market share.
In a lawsuit filed in July, Bose accused Beats of infringing on some of its noise canceling headphone patents. But that suit was settled out of court one week ago.
After Bose signed a huge exclusive sponsorship deal with the NFL, the American sports league banned its players from wearing Beats headphones on camera. San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick received a hefty $10,000 fine for disobeying the order.
Even though Bose products have been removed, Apple’s online store is still selling other headphones from companies like RHA, Urbanears, and Jaybird. But arguably, Bose is easily top competitor to Beats in the current marketplace.
On Wednesday, news leaked that Apple is also planning to soon remove products from popular fitness accessory company Fitbit from its retail stores. Unlike most other activity trackers, Fitbit announced that it has no current plans to integrate with the new Health app in iOS 8.
The Apple Watch, arriving in early 2015, will also offer a number of fitness related functions.
